Old player poking around

[Superdude097]

Hi, I used to play this game years ago and while going through some stuff in my closet found the software. I thought to myself, "I remember this game" and decided to see what it's like now.

My main questions are:

-What is the subscription fee?
-What is questing like nowadays?
-Will my software (which includes a Pre-Order Code) work?

As of right now, I am merely curious about this game and don't intend to start back up right away; I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons Online on and off for a few years and have recently switched to playing it for free.

That's about it for my questions for now, thanks in advance to anyone who replies

[Raeshlavik]

My main questions are:

-What is the subscription fee?
-What is questing like nowadays?
-Will my software (which includes a Pre-Order Code) work?

Subscription ranges from free to $14.95 a month, depending on what you want to do. Free gives you one character and access to all of the game, but you cannot own property. $14.95 gives you multiple character slots, property, and so on. (https://accounts.istaria.com/membershiptypes.php)

Virtrium has been working on the quest content, tier by tier. 1-20 is pretty much done, and there are enough quests and such to keep a person busy all the way through. They are currently working on the 21-40 content and according to the recent dev post this will include new quests, monsters, updated towns, and possibly a few dungeons to explore. (yay!)

If you have the original CDs (2, in the Atari box), probably - but it'll be best if you just download the client off the web site. As MMOs go the client is pretty small and the install process only takes 15 minutes or so, in my experience.

Hope this helps.

[Superdude097]

Thanks, I'm glad that I can play for free and have access to the whole game. Now I think when I get the chance I will download the game and give it a try

[Superdude097]

I took a look at the link you posted, and I just have one question, what is a "Global Consignment Slot"?

[Veruliyam]

The free character is a human.

Hyoooomaaaaan!!

[Raeshlavik]

I took a look at the link you posted, and I just have one question, what is a "Global Consignment Slot"?

The ability to put something on the consigner... Think of it as the number of things you can put in the auction house.

This is only useful if you are continually posting things for other folks to purchase. You can sell anything for quick cash to the pawnbroker with no limits.

[velveeta]

heehee - snak time, draggys!!!

[Raeshlavik]

The free character is a human.

Hyoooomaaaaan!!

Which is perfectly fine if all you're looking to do is see if you like the game.

As soon as someone gets to see the Dragons flying around, wander through the player built towns, check out the subterranean lairs, oggle the cat girls, sample Awdz's cooking, and other such fun things in Istaria - they tend to subscribe.

[Raeshlavik]

heehee - snak time, draggys!!!

Nah, we only tend to eat the subscribers... Free account human is a bit gamy.

[Vehementi]

The free character is a human.

Hyoooomaaaaan!!

Aww So If I were to rejoin aswell my dragon is unusable until I get paid in 3 weeks? Or was he deleted?

[Raeshlavik]

Aww So If I were to rejoin aswell my dragon is unusable until I get paid in 3 weeks? Or was he deleted?

I don't believe Vi deletes disused characters... Mine were all still in the system when I returned after a year hiatus.

But, that being said, I don't think the 'free' option is available for returning players, only new ones. I could be wrong though and Lady Velea or Amarië might pop in to clarify.

[Magnir]

Another old player here snooping around.

How's server stability nowadays? When I left it really seemed that the entire game engine needed to be restructured to fix those problems (at least there was some speculation at that time).

[Raeshlavik]

Another old player here snooping around.

How's server stability nowadays? When I left it really seemed that the entire game engine needed to be restructured to fix those problems (at least there was some speculation at that time).

The servers seem to be working well these days - there was a couple days of fairly rough lag a month or so ago, but I'm chalking that up to DB work on the Dev-end of things as it's been fairly zippy (for me) since then.

Some folks have been mentioning a few issues with the client of late; mostly concerned with XP and the game updater and with disconnects after a period of idleness... I personally have not experienced either of these issues, but I also run Windows 7 and don't tend to idle while in game.

Engine-wise, Vi has done some fairly impressive things without needing to retool the whole thing, such as adding a massive underground dungeon to the game.

[Velea]

To answer the couple of questions which have come up...

If you are looking for your old account/characters and can't find them, you can still go to support.istaria.com and submit a ticket as a "Guest" with what you do recall about your account.

It is correct that we can not add a "Demo" subscription (that's the Free-human only one) to an already existing account. However, if you are looking to come back and check the game out "fresh", you may just want to start a new account and let the old one sit until you are hooked. Then when you do decide to subscribe, you can submit a support ticket asking if we can recover your old characters to your new account. All that is possible.

I think that about covers them all.

And please allow me to be among the first to welcome those long absent back to Istaria.

[Magnir]

I think I'm going to go the free character route for now, see how the revamp is going.

Istaria does need some serious work, though. I'd love to see it migrated to a new engine (I know, probably no funds for that yet). It also needs logical geographical progression for the tiers. I remember when I came back after my initial hiatus I had a the hardest time finding T2 materials! And when I did find them they were being guarded by near-T3 mobs. That shouldn't be.

I'm hoping that the revamp of T1 catches me again... Frankly, Horizons/Istaria is the best crafting game out there. Every new game that comes out has me comparing their crafting to what I found here. Unfortunately, the last time I played Horizons/Istaria, everything else about the game was very lacking.

In fairness, the last time I played was right before EI wiped my character from Blight.

[Kyairthwen]

I know that I myself, after a year hiatus, again, have made a new free account, though humans are far from my favorite, simply because I have a child on the way and can't budget out the money to play on my account right now. This way I get to see how much things have changed in the last year, and get reaquainted with Istaria. I'm quite pleased with the new free option